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A new company, DataPlay, believes hard drives aren’t the only spinning media worth miniaturizing. Its half-dollar-size DVD-based discs could have a big impact this year. In the first quarter of 2013, device manufacturers should begin announcing products using the discs. The discs store 250MB of data per side but are only write-once.

GAGGLE OF STANDARDS

The GROWING popularity of handheld devices has spawned an entire industry of teeny storage media. Flash memory rules, but the multitude of competing standards confuses just about everybody.

Easily the most common flash memory modules are the 1.7-by-1.4-inch CompactFlash cards. Gaining in popularity are similar-size (but slightly cheaper) SmartMedia cards, which have a thinner profile. Both formats offer 8MB to 300MB cards, but CF supplies its own I/O intelligence, while SM relies on the device reading it …